March 17, 2009

SyFy gleanings: News about the 'Battlestar' film, a 'Caprica' challenge, the 'Eureka' love-fest and more

On Monday, the Sci Fi Channel hosted a press screening of the “Battlestar Galactica” finale, which airs Friday. Ronald D. Moore, the show’s executive producer, made the assembled media types raise their hands and swear not to reveal anything that happens in the show’s final two hours. And I surely don’t want an angry Centurion coming after me for even hinting at any developments in the finale.

But I was able to wangle a bit more information about “Caprica,” “The Plan,” “Eureka” and other upcoming projects on Sci Fi, which changes its name this summer to Syfy (doesn’t that sound like the name of a cream that your doctor would prescribe for a skin rash? Ah well. I said it before and I'll say it again: Sci Fi should have embraced real change and just named the channel after its famous cinematic opus, "Mansquito").

Here's one bit of “Battlestar”-related news: “The Plan,” a 2-hour standalone movie that was shot last year, will “probably” air in the fall, according to Sci Fi executive Mark Stern. The date is not set in stone yet, but it sounds as though you can pencil in a November-ish air date for the Cylon-centric film.

“The Plan” was directed by Edward James Olmos, who stars in “Battlestar Galactica” as Admiral William Adama. “When [‘Battlestar’ fans] see ‘The Plan,’ they’re all going to have to go back and watch the entire series again,” Olmos said after the finale screening.

Regarding other projects, just as the network’s “Tin Man” miniseries re-told the classic “Wizard of Oz” tale, Sci Fi is updating “Alice in Wonderland” with the upcoming miniseries “Alice,” which will be made by “Tin Man’s” creative team.

This summer, the network will debut a new, comedically-flavored series, “Warehouse 13,” which is about a pair of federal agents who track down unusual objects and stow them in a massive warehouse full of intergalactic oddities.

“Eureka” also returns in the summer, and Colin Ferguson, who stars in the show as Sheriff Jack Carter, said at the network's party that his character has a ongoing love interest in those episodes (she’s played by Jaime Ray Newman). He also said that Henry Deacon’s long-lost love turns up, and Jack’s daughter, Zoe, will struggle with the decision to go away to college (or not). Also, Ferguson’s friend, actor Billy Campbell, will guest star in one episode.

Finally, “Caprica,” the “Battlestar” prequel series, will debut in early 2010. However, in a novel twist, the show's 2-hour pilot will come out on DVD in April.

Esai Morales and Paula Malcolmson, who star in the new show, were at the Sci Fi event and Malcolmson was forthright in saying that “Caprica” would be different from “Battlestar.”

“Battlestar” has “come to an end, and it’s a beautiful end and [fans] should mourn that show,” Malcolmson said. “You can’t just come along with another show that’s going to replicate it. That’s not what we want to do, we want to give them something else.”

There's a chance that some "Battlestar" fans might be put off by the fact that “Caprica” is more of a soap opera than a space opera.(For more on the show, look here and here; there's a clip from the show here.)

“But that’s OK,” said Malcolmson, who played Trixie on David Milch’s “Deadwood.” “I think I said the same thing about ‘Deadwood.’ They said, ‘What do you say to purists, what do you say to people who love the Western genre?’”

Malcolmson’s response was to repeat a colorful phrase that you would often hear on “Deadwood,” one that cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper. Translation: If fans can't be open-minded about the new show, which takes place 50 years before the events of “Battlestar,” they just shouldn’t watch it.

At that point, “Battlestar” and “Caprica” executive producer David Eick, who was standing nearby, said, “She’s Eddie Olmos. She’s going to be the one saying, ‘Don’t watch our show!’”

Eick was referring to a famous incident that occurred before “Battlestar” premiered. At a press event, Olmos said that hardcore devotees of the first “Battlestar” series should not watch the new one if they could not give it a fair chance.

“He’s right, though,” Malcolmson said of Olmos’ statement to fans of the original “Battlestar.”

And if some “Battlestar fans don’t like the new show, “it’ll give them something to moan about. Everybody loves to complain,” Malcolmson said.

But “Battlestar” fans should know that “Caprica” has Olmos’ seal of approval (despite the fact that he didn’t get to direct it. “They were idiots for not letting me direct it,” he said quite affably.)

“This show is going to be the most spiritually centered piece of work that they’ve seen,” Olmos noted.

And the new show has a lot in common with “Battlestar,” as Morales pointed out: “Caprica” is also “about what it is to be human,” he said.

You adressed the most important thing a little... hmm... not enough... there was a Press-Screening of the BSG-Finale... and you did not coment on your feelings afterwards...
Does this mean you did not like it?
Come on, just tell us... did you like it? I dont want any spoilers... just some feelings, emotions about it...

And I know someone who's (legitimately) seen the 'Caprica' pilot and had a very interesting comment: It's "too sci-fi" for the kind of mainstream critics who hold their noses at the mere mention of genre, but she predicts that a lot of BSG fandom are going to hate it because it's "too realistic" -- in the sense that there's no spaceships, no big splashy space battles or Tricia Helfer in various states of semi-undress. :) All of which certainly has my interest piqued, but I don't envy the folks who are going to have to go out and sell it in an unforgiving marketplace where everything has to fit into a tidy box.

I wonder if that is why the web site SYFYPORTAL changed their name to AIRLOCK.

So SCIFI is going to spend gazillions of dollars (that could go to charity) or to some more of their great movies (Aztec Rex! Harpies! Snakehead Terror! Yeti!) Sigh, so many good titles to choose from.

Thanks for the updates on Eureka and BSG and Caprica (without spoilers).

I'm just saying, that's quite a reach. So, a show that's currently on air and whose series finale is going to screen in a little over two days is drawing a few more comments than a series that isn't going to début for another nine months? Weird...

When a show has good buzz, then the producers are usually thrilled to have critics rave about it. Mo's silence about the BSG finale does not bode well for how fans are going to like it. If the finale is a dissatisfying stinker, then CAPRICA is probably going to be DOA with fans of BSG. I have to wonder if the subpar nature of BSG's last season was due to the staff and writers putting their energies into CAPRICA instead of BSG.

You make a good point, but I know that I don't have much of an interest in Caprica no matter what the writers and staff have planned for the show. After all, the colonies end up toasted in the end no matter how amazing the plot twists and turns on the show. That's why it's critical that the BSG finale not be a stinker. If the journey's end is disappointing, then why start out on the trip in the first place with Caprica?

2 david, I would have loved to have seen the finale like Mo did but in some ways I kinda sympathize with her position. She has seen it. AND she can not talk about it .... good bad or indifferent. (Though I can not imagine Mo being indifferent.) Part of the fun of BSG are the conversations it strikes up (see recent UN stuff). It must be excruciating for Mo not to be able to talk about it even if it does allow her and other writers the time to prepare columns. Personally I am looking forward to the party I am going to where immediately after (as well as during the commercials ; ) we can blather on and on about how and why and this and that. The anticipation is half the fun. Can't wait to read on Sat what Mo's impressions are.....

Mo here: Excruciating. That is a word. You are so right, I'd love nothing more than to be talking about it! :)

The agreement won't even allow you to talk about your feelings about the finale? Or, whether you think fans will like it? If Moore put that kind of gag order out, then I do hope that someone spills the beans because that just doesn't seem fair.

Mo here: Not only did I promise not to talk about it, I don't think my feelings about it can be summed up in a few words. So I'd rather say nothing until I can say what I mean.

When I finished watching last night I realized that it was truly over. Would or could I have lived on earth 150,000 years ago with rock and spear cavemen? Don't think so. I'd miss Photoshop and my Mac too much! To mark the end I created a Death Certificate:
http://www.campphotoshop.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Death-Certificate
I think I did it to help me cope. Bye BSG.

Now it's truly over... and here I sit Googling for some little inkling of a promise of something just as great to come. This has been a great series - a first for me, as I've never really been a Sci Fi fan.

That the Sci Fi channel is changing their name to "SyFy" is appropriate given that they have not followed the true path they set out on over a decade ago. I was there when they announced the "new channel" and have an original poster listing all the wonderful "advisors" (granted, some are dead now). The channel started out wonderfully with some great shows that I'd never seen before, plus Farscape, and Lexx, to name a few excellent productions. Then some shlock channel bought them and made them the piece of crap they are today. With their fake campy B-movies (Chupacapra on a cruise ship? What a waste of the evil goatsucker) replete with terrible acting and trite/boring dialog. The ONLY reason I watched that channel was BSG. And I preferred to watch it on DVD but ended up not being able to wait when the new seasons came out. The Syfy channel can have it's cute little name change. For the real hardcore fans of sci fi, we can continue to read books and watch it when it comes out on DVD.

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